Every time when I went to Boston, or we had a meeting or a trip together
somewhere around the globe, I was looking forward meeting Alan. (It so
happens that I am scheduled to be at MIT in a few days, and I was
genuinely looking forward taking some time off with Alan again...) We
always tried to find the time to have a dinner or lunch together, and I
spent lots of evenings in the lovely home of the Kotok family in
Cambridge. We had lot of subjects in common, like politics, history, but
I think music was our favourite subject of discussion (and that includes
Judith, too, of course). Alan's (and Judith's) knowledge, CD collection,
even videos on old (pre-Haydn) was huge. I was very proud when once or
twice I could show some CD-s to Alan that he did not know:-). I also
collected information on organs in Europe when I travelled around, sent
him photos and, sometimes, infos, because that was also one of his great
hobbies (I remember collecting information on the best organs in
Budapest before he came to my home town...) But our conversations could
also more private, I heard a lot about their lives and I was happy to
share my sorrows and joys with them every time. Yes, I considered both
of them as my friends and I am proud that, I think, they also considered
me as theirs in some ways.
We also had some nice trip together, all three of us; I will always
remember our visits to, eg, the Imperial Palace of Seoul, or some areas
of Singapore. Alan had great troubles doing that, because he had major
problems with his back. He had to 'reset', as he called it, every ten
minutes or so, which simply meant he had to sit down for a while. He
bore his problems with charm, and with a very typical gentle humour...
Alan and Judith Kotok were one of the nicest, most lovely couple I have
ever known. I remember Alan telling me in Montreal about the difficult
times he had and how he missed her. It seems that he indeed could not
live without her for too long.
I am not ashamed to say that I shed some tears this morning when I read
the news (just as I did when Judith passed away a few months ago). I
lost a friend.
Ivan
--
Ivan Herman
W3C Team
C/o W3C Benelux Office at CWI, Kruislaan 413
1098SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
tel: +31-20-5924163; mobile: +31-641044153;
URL: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/